1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an attrition-resistant superabsorbent polymer and a method of manufacturing the same and, more particularly, to an attrition-resistant superabsorbent polymer, which includes a superabsorbent polymer, porous superhydrophobic microparticles, and water, thereby increasing the moisture content of the superabsorbent polymer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) are synthetic polymers able to absorb water about 500˜1000 times their own weight. Such superabsorbent polymers have actually begun to be used for sanitary items, and are being currently widely utilized in not only hygiene products such as baby paper diapers and menstrual sanitary pads, but also gardening soil repair agents, water stop agents for civil construction, seeding sheets, freshness retaining agents in food distribution sectors, and fomentation materials. Compared to conventional absorbent materials, superabsorbent polymers have outstanding absorption capacity and thus the market value thereof becomes high because of a wider range of applications thereof. In particular, superabsorbent polymers having excellent water absorbability are mainly employed in hygiene products such as baby diapers and adult diapers. Upon application to hygiene products, the superabsorbent polymer present in the diapers plays a role in absorbing and retaining urine. Meanwhile, in the course of manufacturing diapers, superabsorbent polymers may undergo high pressure and physical impact, and thus the properties thereof may be remarkably deteriorated, resulting in poor diaper performance.
In this regard, Korean Patent Application Publication No. 2012-0081113 discloses a method of manufacturing an absorbent polymer including water-insoluble inorganic particles. However, such a conventional technique is problematic because surface stickiness of the superabsorbent polymer becomes high with an increase in moisture content on the surface thereof, undesirably incurring agglomeration, poor processability, and low productivity as mentioned above, thus making it difficult to satisfy both high moisture content and high processability.
Thus, in order to manufacture final products such as diapers using superabsorbent polymers that may uniformly contain water without caking upon addition of water thereto and may possess improved attrition resistance, there is required to develop techniques able to obtain desired product performance while minimizing the deterioration of the properties of the superabsorbent polymer due to physical attrition by compression or strong air movement during production of the diapers.